'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Will Shatter Box Office Records

Whoever said, "Records were made to be broken," wasn't kidding. It took just three or four hours for Star Wars: The Force Awakens to set a new record in Australia for the most first-day tickets sold by any film in that country. Fandango reports the movie's first-day sales set a new record 700% higher than the previous record-holder. MovieTickets says The Force Awakens' first-day ticket sales accounted for 95% of the site's total ticket purchases, while the "Star Wars marathon" was the second-highest selling (so the Star Wars franchise accounted for somewhere between 96-99% of all sales at MovieTickets), driving sales at the site three times higher than any previous day in site history.

But that's not all, dear readers. AMC Theaters confirms the new Star Wars picture sold ten times as many tickets as the theater chain's prior one-day record-setter. No movie has ever sold more than $1 million in IMAX tickets in one day, ever, but The Force Awakens sold $6.5 million in tickets on its first day. And it did all of this despite most online ticket outlets being broken for several hours due to the surge, too. If those sites had remained up the entire time, what would the numbers look like?

So goes the news of the opening day of sales for the latest Star Wars film -- record after record falls as it seeks to erase any remaining doubt it can break
box office records when it opens December 18th. Until tickets went on sale, the big question was whether Star Wars: The Force Awakens could really expect to set a new domestic opening weekend record with a December opening during a major shopping holiday. Despite Avatar and Titanic being the top two highest-grossing movies of all time, neither set the all-time opening weekend record, instead relying on months of repeat business and small weekly declines (in fact, sometimes enjoying increases in attendance on later weekends, as Titanic did repeatedly) to gradually swell their coffers.

It's already been noted plenty of times that of course Star Wars doesn't need to set an opening weekend record, or even take the crown for all-time worldwide box office gross, in order to be a huge success. If it opened to "only" $100-150 million, it would demolish the previous biggest December domestic opening figures by a wide margin. If it "only" took $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office, it would be the year's most successful film and the third-highest grossing movie in history.

There should be little doubt the film will top the magical $1 billion mark, even though it's not required to do so in order to be a hit. Arguably the least beloved entry in the Star Wars series, The Phantom Menace, still gobbled up $924 million worldwide back in 1999 dollars. Today, that would amount to $1.3 billion. And that was without 3D ticket pricing, IMAX pricing (which, by the way, accounted for nearly 40% of advance ticket sales at some outlets), or a larger theater count domestically and internationally (The Force Awakens will open on vastly more screens than The Phantom Menace). It was also minus the original trilogy's cast.

The ticket pricing issue alone would boost that number to at least $1.6 billion or thereabouts, enough to at minimum challenge Jurassic World's box office take this summer.
Next, the theater count should give it the extra momentum to hit $1.7 billion. And that's just for The Phantom Menace, remember. If The Force Awakens is better, and if we take into account the original cast returning, then... well, you see where this is going.

And if you don't, then I refer you back to the first two paragraphs of this article. Whatever hesitation you may have had about considering how high Star Wars: The Force Awakens could fly, and even if you still harbor doubts it can take the all-time spot from Avatar when it comes to final box office tallies, it looks increasingly certain that the latest installment from a galaxy far, far away is on course to top Jurassic World's record for biggest North American opening weekend.

Turn the page to keep reading all about why the Force will be with Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the box office!